At Saint Laurent, A Blueprint for the Future

By CATHY HORYN

Published: March 4, 2006

Just what made Stefano Pilati leave the gilded cage of the Intercontinental Hotel for a pink room at the Pompidou Center is hard to say. What made him do an entire Yves Saint Laurent collection without a single pantsuit -- or a fur or a leopard print -- is also hard to say.

But what can be said is that a designer has finally set down the blueprint for what Saint Laurent should be in the future. Three designers have tried: Alber Elbaz, Tom Ford and Mr. Pilati, who has done four women's collections and in January had a men's show that raised doubts about his vision for the French house. On Thursday, though, Mr. Pilati hit on a look that not only seemed right for the brand but also didn't resemble anything else we have seen this season on the Paris runways.

Although Mr. Pilati had an influence on fashion almost from the outset, with small belted waists and tulip skirts, he failed, in a sense, to present a style that was compelling and comprehensible beyond its parts. Sure, the shoes were great and the blouses pretty, but the rest of the look seemed too mirthless for a brand that had some part of its origin in the streets. More crucially, it lacked Saint Laurent's bitchy slap of sex.

Mr. Pilati has now corrected most of those problems, seizing on the tunic (in light wool or cashmere) as the prime day element and belting it over a short slim skirt or matching trousers. It's a fresh alternative to a suit -- and here, too, he was more at ease, showing a trim suit in light-gray speckled wool with a short wrap skirt. Legs were covered with black tights; stilettos and low boots came in black patent leather with a small gold-rimmed platform; and shirts, when he had them, were in cream silk crepe or paper-thin black leather.

And instead of offering interesting textures or allusions to this thing or that, Mr. Pilati concentrated on giving Saint Laurent a silhouette, starting (logically) with the shoulders. By doing this, the clothes became cooler, sexy. He found the key he needed. He ran the tunic story into evening, with black and taupe chiffon tops embroidered at Lesage with gold African-inspired ornaments and shown with chiffon leggings.

But the most telling sign that Mr. Pilati was more at home in the perverse mansion of Saint Laurent were evening capes in chain-link or popcorn knit. The choice betrayed a greater sensitivity to the house's minor rhythms, and a willingness to just go for it.

''Movement, movement, movement!'' said Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel on Friday, summarizing the effect of long chiffon blouses layered under boucl?ackets and trailing out over leather miniskirts and high white boots tipped in black. At the luxe level, Mr. Lagerfeld is fashion's most reliable guide; he leads you right up to the edge but never over it. He said a few days before his show that Chanel was for life -- meaning that the clothes were modern because they had a faultless connection to life. Then, catching himself, he amended his statement.

''They are for a nearly perfect life,'' he said.

This season Mr. Lagerfeld focused on dark and shapely coats in wool boucl?r leather, with a small waist and the occasional flourish of a creamy tie at the neck. The collection reflected Mr. Lagerfeld's growing desire to give Chanel a harder, more youthful energy while keeping it close to the house's romantic story.

His most interesting gestures were spare mini-coatdresses in wool boucl?ith densely beaded shoulders and cuffs; a long version of the coat, in nearly transparent boucl?had a cluster of dark stones on the shoulders. The low-heeled boots and one-shoulder dresses in black mousseline -- virtual T-shirts -- evoked that cool downtown attitude.

What sets Mr. Lagerfeld apart is the wide reach of his imagination. He said before the show that black chiffon dresses with red beading at the neckline were a Russian reference, though Coco Chanel never saw the place. She did, however, have a long affair with a Russian duke, and Mr. Lagerfeld recently acquired a collection of photographs of the couple taken in Biarritz. He plans to make a book from them.

In the meantime, he has made some beautiful dresses, and it can't be an accident that, in their cloudy depths, they hint of melancholy. He sees everything.

In tunic dresses of wrought-iron-green velvet and burnt-brown wool, Loulou de la Falaise picked up the season's somber Goth mood. Jackets were in dry tweeds, blouses in dusty shades of violet and teal, and Ms. de la Falaise's trousers in black or brown wool with side panels of matching velvet were an example of her practical ?n.

Haider Ackermann has a captivating way of mixing tailoring and draping. The lines often blur. Soft cotton jersey trousers appeared with a washed muddy-brown jacket, its collar made from woven bits of feathers. Leather jackets melded with draped silk skirts, often in cognac and Indian blue. It all seemed perfectly graceful and, somehow, true.

Photos: YVES SAINT LAURENT -- From left, a chiffon evening tunic with gold ornament around the hem; a cocoony popcorn-knit evening cape worn over a paper-thin leather shirt and a leather skirt; a belted tunic and miniskirt in cashmere, shown with short boots. (Photographs by Jean-Luce Huré for The New York Times); CHANEL -- From left, a bouclé mini-coatdress with beaded shoulders, shown with high white boots; an organdy evening dress with an embroidered bodice and separate lace cuffs; a wool bouclé jacket layered over a ruffled chiffon blouse, a long chiffon top and a leather mini. (Photo by François Guillot/Agence France-Presse -- Getty Images); LOULOU DE LA FALAISE -- A mossy green washed-velvet dress with a tie at the waist.; HAIDER ACKERMANN -- Slouchy jersey pants and a washed-linen jacket with a collar of woven feathers.